David Cameron was attacked by a white van driver who tried to push him into a car as he cycled home from a dinner late at night.

The van had been following him and was stopping and starting, which made Mr Cameron nervous. “I turned down a road I don’t normally go down, and I slowed down and sort of pulled in behind a line of parked cars,” he reveals in a book out today.

“As this van drove by this hand came out and just bashed me in the back with the aim of pushing me in front of the car. Luckily I managed to put the brakes on.”

The incident happened a few months ago and is recounted in Cameron on Cameron, which is based on conversations that the Conservative leader had with Dylan Jones, the Editor of GQ, over the past year.

In the book Mr Cameron speaks frankly about his family, his religion, his personal likes and dislikes, and even how he cried at his wedding, but he again refuses to confirm or deny whether he has tried Class A drugs.

He reveals that his wife, Samantha, is hard to pigeonhole. “She went to a day school, was a Goth at 14, had a quite wild childhood and is unconventional and challenging, and that is very good as it stopped me from being too straight down the line.”

She was supportive of him going for the leadership. “She once said, only half joking, that she was so bored being married to an MP in a party that’s going nowhere – if you think you can sort it out, then you had better get on and do it.”

At their wedding, he cried. “I tend to cry when I’m happy and I did then. And then Samantha started crying.”

He tells how he felt on learning that his son, Ivan, had cerebral palsy. “It hits you like a freight train because all the expectations you have for your child change immediately.” He adds: “I love him dearly, but we’ve definitely managed to get to a situation where he has not taken over our lives.”

His family rule is that he must be home early two nights a week: one to be with Samantha for suppertime, and the other to do bathtime with the children.

On religion, Mr Cameron says that he is a “pretty classic Church of England ‘racked with doubt and scepticism’ believer”. Asked if he has ever taken Class A drugs, he says: “I have answered this question in the way that I chose to, which is to say that I believe all politicians have the right to a private past.” He says that, through friends, he has had experience of the damage drugs can do.

On politics, he twice accuses Gordon Brown of lying – over the timing of the election and inheritance tax – and describes Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, as his favourite political joke. His ambition, he says, is to be as radical a social reformer as Margaret Thatcher was an economic reformer.

“In many ways that’s more difficult and complicated to do, but it’s no less an ambition, it’s no less a task, and at its heart it’s dealing with the issues of family breakdown, welfare dependency, failing schools, crime and the problems that we see in too many of our communities.”

He says that he knew the Tories were in trouble when Tony Blair was elected Labour leader. He also suggests that he would be tougher than Mr Blair in handling ministers. “He was not tough enough with his team. They kept saying, ‘I am sorry, I’m not going to accept this, I don’t want to go.’ Well, I’m sorry . . . when I want someone to go, I simply tell them and then that’s that.”

He admits that delivering his first party conference speech as leader without notes was a huge gamble – one that almost did not pay off. “It was a big roll of the dice to do it without any notes. No Autocue, no funny business. There was a moment when I lost my train of thought, but no one really noticed,” he says.

Mr Cameron tells of an encounter with Jade Jagger and her father, the lead singer of the Rolling Stones. While he was at Oxford Mr Cameron’s younger sister, Clare, came to visit him, bringing with her a school friend, Jade, then 15. They all spent the afternoon punting on the river, but the following week Mr Cameron’s mother, Mary, received a call at home from Mick Jagger, who was not happy. “What’s all this my daughter has been getting up to with your son?”, he asked. “You know, I don’t approve of blood sports.”

— Cameron on Cameron: Conversations with Dylan Jones is published by HarperCollins.

A question of taste

— David Cameron’s favourite book is Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

— His favourite film is Lawrence of Arabia (1962), his favourite sitcom is Porridge and his favourite work of art Guernica by Picasso

— He prefers snooker to pool, bitter to lager, and Little Britain to Alan Partridge

— He has bought albums by Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse

— Homer is his favourite Simpsons character, because he is a “useless, bumbling dad”

— The Conservative leader wears Marks & Spencer underwear

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